Kesha Rose is standing strong against body shamers. On Sunday, July 7, the 37-year-old singer shared two bikini photos on her Instagram grid, accompanied by a lengthy caption that echoes the message of one of her songs, “Hate Me Harder.”
“I didn’t think in 2024 people still body shamed,” Kesha began the post. “But. I am so proud of my body. She’s been through a lot. She’s torn her acl on stage and finished the show. She’s held my f–king broken heart together.”
She continued, “To those who think you’re shaming me, you’re actually making me feel very powerful. So, to you, I hope you one day feel whole enough to not tear other women down.”
Stars and fans alike flocked to the comments section to show their support. Kyle Richards wrote, “So beautiful inside and out,” while celebrity makeup artist Jill Powell added, “You are beautiful!!! Beautiful person, beautiful body and beautiful soul. Haters gonna hate because they are jealous. You are a light in this world. Keep shining bright!! ”
Kesha didn’t disclose what body shamers have said, but her clapback comes years after she sought help for an eating disorder. “I really just thought I wasn’t supposed to eat food,” she told Rolling Stonein 2017. “And then if I ever did, I felt very ashamed, and I would make myself throw up because I’d think, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe I actually did that horrible thing. I’m so ashamed of myself because I don’t deserve to eat food.”
“I was slowly, slowly starving myself. And the worse I got and the sicker I got, the better a lot of people around me were saying that I looked. They would just be like, ‘Oh, my gosh, keep doing whatever you’re doing! You look so beautiful, so stunning.' ”
Ultimately, she asked her mom for help, who took her to rehab. “I didn’t know how to even eat,” she reflected. “At that point, I’d forgotten how to do it. I just remember crying into a carbohydrate, being like, ‘I can’t eat it. It’s going to make me fat, and if I’m fat, I can’t be a singer because pop stars can’t eat food – they can’t be fat.’”
And she’s come leaps and bounds since. In a 2023 interview with Self, she said: “No one could have told me this 10 years ago, but…freedom from that obsession is there. It takes work to get there. But sitting here knowing that I don’t count any calories, I don’t know what my pant size is, and I don’t weigh myself is so beautiful.”
